Twelve Horses predicts big

Twelve Horses, a Reno-based technology firm, aims to change the way people buy event tickets.

It's clawing its way into a field dominated by big players like Ticketron, Ticketmaster and Tix. Those firms typically charge a convenience fee amounting to as much as a third of the ticket cost, says Robert Payne, marketing director at Twelve Horses.

"Convenience fees are not friendly. Every time I have to pay $12 on top of a $30 ticket, I feel a lot of animosity about that," he says.

Instead, venues can license Twelve Horses Ticketing and be charged a modest fee per ticket sold. "We want to make our client look good," says Payne.

Plus, the software allows a customer to deliver the ticket via mail, email, cell phone and self-service kiosks.

The software is integrated into customer Web sites. That flexibility isn't an option with current ticket sellers, says Payne. "The major players have proprietary systems that don't play well with others."

T.J. Crawford, director of strategic services and product development at Twelve Horses, says three developers began work on the software more than a year ago. The Las Vegas monorail had hired a firm to create a program that would deliver tickets by mobile phone. But when that firm fell through on delivery,

Twelve Horses, which had contracted to develop the monorail Web site, picked up the ball and ran with it.

"We did more research on the ticketing industry and found it was misaligned with the customer," says Crawford. "Most use as a basis the initial technology developed in the 1980s and 90s. We envisioned an entire product costing a fraction of what the big guys charge."

But the challenge of that vision, he adds, was thinking differently about aligning the product with the customer.

Now that Twelve Horses is ready to market the product, its approach is also different. Rather than attempt to win the major sports and concert venues serviced by the big players, it will focus on smaller venues.

"We're not going to compete with guys who can outspend us 100 to one," says Crawford. "Besides, a great many more people buy tickets to arts, culture and museums than to sporting events."

The software, he says, is designed with smaller organizations in mind.

"We will make the software so easy that the front desk receptionist can use it; because that's often who maintains the company Web site," says Crawford.

In the first year of sales, he expects Twelve Horses Ticketing to return 10 times expenses.

"If we hit targets, for $100,000 invested we expect to reap $1 million." And that revenue growth, he says, will lead to additional hiring for clients who want the service installed.

But the software won't be limited to event ticket sales, he adds. Transportation is another alluring segment.

David LaPlante, chief executive officer, says, "We see this as a multi-million dollar category."